ModNation Racers UKReview

Share.

Play, Create, Share... Plagiarise?

By Keza MacDonald

ModNation Racers looked in danger of being rather generic when it was first unveiled – an average kart racer adorned in colourful, player-created clothing, perhaps. So, its exuberant personality comes as a very pleasant surprise. It's a delight to discover that ModNation Racers isn't a Mario Kart rip-off with poorly-integrated customisation features. Instead it's what you'd imagine you'd get if the LittleBigPlanet team stumbled across a copy of the N64's largely-forgotten but much-loved Diddy Kong Racing and decided to remake it in their own style.

The cartoony visuals and good sense of humour really enliven things; ModNation Racers is instantly likable. It has chuckle-worthy spoof car adverts, a gently stereotyped Italian supervillain with a pet monkey and bickering sports news commentators wearing no trousers under their news desks. It intersperses the racing with likable, slapstick cut-scenes, framing the single-player in a cute underdog story that takes your self-created racer from the bottom of the leagues to world champion, overcoming injury, kart write-offs and sinister sponsorship deals along the way. On top of that, the massively varied customisation options offer up as much opportunity for self-expression as you could possibly want.

Developer United Front isn't Media Molecule, obviously, but they're clearly admirers. ModNation Racers shares both LittleBigPlanet's create-and-share ethos and its uniquely accessible approach to player-created content. The menus and customisation options are beautifully clear and easy to understand. It's all so enticingly and appealingly presented that you find yourself really wanting to have a go at making your own track or racer.

The hub area – the Modspot, as it's called – is a little circular plaza with you and a few other randomly-selected online racers pootling around. There are big screens with the latest news and statistics from the PlayStation Network on display, as well as the top-voted kart and character designs on podiums along with upcoming DLC – all of which you can download or buy with the press of a button.

The Creation Station, where you can make and share everything you want, is easily accessible from the plaza, along with the shop and the racing centre, where you can jump straight into an online or single-player race. There are no mandatory menus – you can get to everything the game has to offer by driving up to it, and a press of the R1 button lets you change karts and characters on the fly or jump straight to a particular section of the plaza if, for some reason, you prefer doing things through menus (perhaps you're an institutionalised Windows user).

Creating a racer is a doddle, and the results are frequently excellent.

If you don't have your PS3 hooked up to the internet, ModNation is still a great kart racer, but it's the brilliant integration of all the online features that really brings the game alive. The top-rated player in the world is displayed as a huge statue in the racing plaza, and you get to see other people's demented artistic brainchildren driving around everywhere.

It's impressively well thought-through, and thankfully the actual racing is just as polished. ModNation Racers is a simple but effective mix of high speed, skill and chaos. It's of the don't-ever-take-your-finger-off-the-accelerator breed of kart racing, with bright, well-designed, drift-heavy courses loosely based around farms, jungles, medieval villages or circus-style jumps through flaming hoops, all peppered with shortcuts. The items scattered around the course let you rain race-changing destruction on your rivals, from disruptive sonic booms to missiles or electric bolts. You can upgrade them by running over two or three item pods in a row before unleashing them.